The Four, or Fire, or Six Dragon Kings

 

In traditional Chinese folklore there are five dragon kings associated with each direction. There's Qinglong, the azure dragon of the east and of spring.




Chilong, the red dragon of the south and of summer



Bailong, the white dragon of the west and of autumn



Heilong, the black dragon of the north and of winter



And Huanglong, the yellow imperial dragon of the center and of late summer




These directional associations exist in addition to the four beasts of the directions, the vermilion bird of the south, the white tiger of the west, the black turtle of the north and the azure dragon of the east, where Qinglong makes it into both groups.

Already in early history there existed folk religion incantations to five seasonal dragons for rainmaking rituals. Although there were many different dragon king associated with smaller regional areas rather than one codified group of dragon kings. Later, Confucius texts associated each season with directions and colors, further codifying the correspondences.

The consecration sutras introduced the idea of kings ruling over the four directions, which became associated with the already established seasonal and directional dragons, with the yellow dragon of the imperial cult taking the central position, representing the lands of China itself in the directions. The Consecration Sutras had a large influence over China between the Han and Tang dynasties, in spite of being apocryphal and espousing five right actions. Later there would be a push for more orthodox Buddhist practices centring around the eight-fold path and the idea of five being a sacred number fell out of favor. Around this time the idea of the dragon king was condensed into the singular character of Longwang, the god of seas and rain and water.


Longwang, the singular dragon king.


In spite of the idea falling out with Buddhism, the worship of the regional dragons kings never stopped with Daoist and folk rights, with shrines to the five dragon kings of the directions still in use today, where it especially popular in the city of Tainan.


In addition to the five dragons kings of the directions, there's also the dragon kings of the four seas, each one associated with a body of water surrounding China. The dragon kings being Ao Guang of the east sea, Au Run of Qinghai Lake to the west, Au Qin of the South sea, and Ao Ming of Lake Baikal to the north. These alternate names are largely associated with the dragon kings of the directions.



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